The Tales of the Marauders
by Dorian-Express
Summary: Series of One-Shots of the Marauders. All of the stories are without Voldemort or the Death Eaters. It's like a Slice of Life AU. Updates will be sporadic. I do not own anything by JK Rowling. R&R. Feel free to send suggestions.
1. 1 Death of 1173

-The Death of 1173-

That bastard. He promised that he wouldn't skip his Head Boy duties! The bloody bastard promised me and I believed him. Two weeks in! Just two weeks before he played hooky. Lily swore as she ran towards the Gryffindor Common Room. If anyone was going to know where the dear Head Boy, James Potter, was going to be, it was Sirius Black. _If he doesn't tell me, I'm going to give him a seriously black eye_ , Lily thought to herself and chuckled at her own pun. Who was Potter to tell her she wasn't funny? If there was one thing Lily Evan knew herself to be, it was that she was absolutely hilarious.

Lily stopped before the portrait of the Fat Lady and recited the password, "Gutter Worm". The portrait flung open and Lily stomped up the stairs to the Common Room. She scanned the Common Room for a tall boy with messy black hair and wire-rimmed glasses. _Dammit_ , Lily thought when she couldn't spot James in the mix of Gryffindors. She also noted that the only Marauder present was Remus, who was alone and reading a textbook by the fire. Lily walked over and tapped the sandy-haired boy on the shoulder.

Remus looked up and smiled softly at the seething redhead. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Lily?" Remus asked from his seat by the fire.

"Where is James?" Lily asked immediately, forgoing the pleasantries with her fellow prefect.

Remus sighed and closed the textbook in his lap. "He skipped, didn't he?"

Lily nodded vivaciously. "He bloody promised me that he wouldn't skip patrols!"

Remus stared in the flame. Lily noted the sad look in his eyes as they stared into the embers. "What happened to James?" Lily asked.

"I should get Sirius. Wait here," Remus said before walking up the stairs to the 7th year boy's dormitory. A minute later, Remus walked back down the stairs, followed by Sirius. But something was off about Sirius. He didn't have the same jubilant bounce in his steps and he looked sad, devastated even.

The anger Lily held in her chest disappeared at the sight of Sirius's blotchy red eyes. "Are you okay, Black?" Lily whispered.

Sirius sat down on the couch in front of the flame, but not with his usual, dramatic flair. He looked small, so small. Remus took a seat next to Sirius and draped an arm over his shoulder. He leaned down and whispered something into Sirius's ear, but Lily couldn't make out what Remus was saying.

"Moony! I couldn't find him," a voice exploded from the portrait entrance. Lily turned around and saw that it was Peter Pettigrew who had emerged into the Gryffindor Common Room.

Remus shushed him immediately. "What do you mean you couldn't find him? Did you check the Kitchens? James might be there," Remus said in a hushed tone.

Peter shook his head and sat down on the opposite side of Sirius. "I checked all of James's usual hiding spots. But it's hard to find someone with an invisibility cloak! He even has our Map."

"You can't find him either? What happened to him?" Lily asked.

Remus got up to speak, but Sirius raised his hand to Remus's chest, stopping him. "I'll tell her," Sirius said. His voice was hoarse and carried a dead tone to it, so unlike the happy-go-lucky Sirius Lily was used to.

Sirius got up and gestured for Lily to walk out with him. "I don't want to talk in here. Too many ears, Evans."

Lily nodded and followed Sirius out of the common room and into the empty corridor outside. Sirius leaned against the marble walls and took out a pack of cigarettes.

"You can't smoke in here," Lily protested immediately. Sirius ignored Lily and lit a cigarette with the tip of his wand before sticking it into his mouth and taking a drag.

"Remus doesn't like it when I smoke, either. Bad habit and hard to break, he says," Sirius muttered.

Lily quirked an eyebrow at Sirius's use of Remus's given name. "No Moony?"

Sirius shrugged. "Rough day, Evans." He took another drag of his cigarette.

Lily gulped. If Sirius was affected this badly by whatever happened, then she feared for how James was faring. She couldn't imagine a sullen James. She didn't want to see those bright hazel eyes with the same dejected look that were in Sirius's eyes. "Where's James?" she whispered.

Sirius laughed darkly. "If James doesn't want to be found, you won't find him. He has both the cloak and the map."

"What happened?" Lily asked.

Sirius sighed and scratched the back of his head. "His parents died."

Lily gasped. From what she understood, Sirius was like a second son to the Potters. "Oh my god, how?"

Sirius shrugged. "James didn't say. He just told me they died before taking the cloak and the map. He said he wanted to be alone. James was never one to talk about his feelings. He's probably off brooding somewhere in the castle or getting drunk at Hogsmeade." He flicked his butt across the hallway.

"If anyone of us can find him, it's you, Evans. He's probably looking at the Map, actively trying not to be found. But if he sees that it's you, he'll probably show himself," Sirius said after a minute.

"What makes you think he'll talk to me when he won't even talk to the three people he calls his brothers?" Lily said, her tone taking a slight edge.

Sirius chuckled and pat Lily on the shoulder tentatively. "James is probably in the Astronomy Tower. I'd try there first," he said before returning to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Lily stood by herself, weighing whether or not to find her partner. She had become quite friendly with him, but not so friendly that she was comfortable helping him grieve over the loss of his parents. Sure, they had been schoolmates for the last six years, but they were on the opposite ends of the spectrum for those six years. How did one grieve over this?

 _He's my fellow Head Student_ , she rationalized. How was she supposed to be a good Head Girl if she didn't make sure her fellow Head was doing alright? It was unethical to leave him by himself. If anything, she would have to give him detention for skipping Head duties. _Maybe detention is a bit much,_ Lily corrected herself.

Lily tried Sirius's idea and headed off for the Astronomy Tower. It was cold, despite it still being the middle of September. She wished that she hadn't forgotten her cloak in the Head's Dorm. She shivered as she carefully walked up the spiral staircase of the Astronomy Tower, praying that James was there so she wouldn't have to check god knows where else.

Lily pushed the door open tentatively and was hit with a freezing blast of wind in the face. She looked across the room and there was James Potter, one of his long legs dangling over the ledge. He was looking down, not having noticed Lily enter the room.

Lily shot forward and yelled, "James! What are you doing?" Her heart raced as she imagined James jumped down and ending his life. She imagined the soul crushing sound his mangled body would make as it hit the ground below. Tears sprang to her eyes as she clutched her chest with her hands.

James turned around and was startled to see Lily. "How did you find me?" He stepped down from the ledge and practically ran over to Lily. Lily looked up and saw how red, and swollen James's eyes were. His nose was running and she could make out the faint tear stains on his face. Without thinking, she reached up and cupped his face with her hands. A tear fell from his hazel eyes and she softly wiped it away with her thumb.

"I'm sorry about your parents, James," she whispered.

James placed his hand over her hand and shook his head. "They were old, even by Wizard standards, Lily. They weren't doing too well when I left for Hogwarts, either. So don't be sorry, Lily."

Lily leaned forward, so that her forehead rested on James's shoulder. She snaked her arms around her waist and silently cried into his wrinkled, white button-up. "I'm sorry I got mad when you didn't show up for patrol. I'm sorry for being mean to you today." She felt James's arms wrap around her shoulders, bringing her closer to his body.

James leaned down, so that his lips were mere instances away from her scalp. "You're cold, Lily. Let's get you inside." His breath sent shivers down Lily's spine, causing her breath to catch in her throat.

Lily simply nodded, it was the only reaction her body could illicit in a moment like this. She felt James's laugh reverberate through his chest. She could hear the beating of his heart. She could feel him next to her and it felt…right. _We're friends! Of course, this hug feels right_ , Lily rationalized.

Lily frowned when she felt James's warmth pull away from her. She desperately wanted the smell the faint hints of cologne embedded in the very fabric of her shirt and to feel his warm arms wrapped around her shivering shoulders. But Lily Evans was not about to succumb to the walking pheromone known as James Potter.

Lily wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her cardigan and waited for James to gather up his cloak and Map on the floor. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized that James had been staring at her for the better part of a minute and she was staring at him. She was enchanted by the way he looked in the moonlight. The moonlight encompassed his lanky frame and accented his tanned skin with a silver glow. His hazel eyes burned intensely as he took her in.

"We should head to the Head's Dorm, Lily," James said after a minute. He walked over and shed his coat, which he promptly placed over Lily's trembling shoulders. The two walked down the stairs and through the corridors to the Head's Dorm silently. Lily was thankful the silence. James was normally very talkative, but it was nice to be able to sort out her thoughts without having his luscious voice invading her mind.

They were friends, or whatever teetering on the border of friendship. James, Lily — Lily found out a few years too late — was quite fun to talk to. While Lily didn't quite appreciate the sheer number of sexual innuendos that James spew from his mouth, she quite enjoyed the off-color quips and dad jokes. She had to admit that James was smart, smarter than she ever gave him credit for. It wasn't common knowledge that James held a Transfiguration tutoring session every Wednesday at eight in one of the library alcoves. When Lily found out, she assumed that it wasn't well-known because James is an idiot and who in the world would seek his help? But it turned out that it wasn't well-known because James would be far too swamped with the sheer number of people seeking his expertise.

James studied. Lily never realized how much he studied. James would stay up until two or three in the morning to finish his schoolwork and he rarely ever skipped his duties as a result. Not as a Marauder, not as Quidditch Captain, and not as Head Boy. While Lily looked like a banshee somedays, James always looked the same. He looked like James.

Without looking where she was walking, Lily bumped into what seemed like a fleshy wall. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her so she wouldn't stumble over. "You okay, Lily?" James asked. Lily nodded and so regrettably, James let go of the young redhead.

James turned to the portrait guarding the Heads Dorm and recited the password. The portrait flung open and the pair walked up the narrow staircase into the spacious Head Common Room. Thankfully, the fireplace was enchanted to automatically start a fire at ten if one hadn't already been started.

James draped his cloak and invisibility cloak over one of the arm chairs before retrieving a bottle of Firewhiskey from the kitchenette cupboard. "You want a glass?" James asked.

Lily rarely drank. She wasn't of age yet, but she did have the occasional glass. She quite enjoyed the feeling of being tipsy, but had only done that once and it was at her sister's wedding this past summer. "I'll take a glass, James."

James looked surprised, but still placed two glasses on the coffee table. He sat down, popped with the glass bottle of Firewhiskey, and poured two sizeable glasses. Lily reached out and grabbed a glass tentatively. James raised his glass towards her. "Cheers."

Lily clinked her glass against his. "Cheers." She looked down at her glass and for some unknown reason, felt quite anxious. Nevertheless, she took a small sip of the glass and winced as the liquid burned its way down her tongue and into her throat.

"Come on, Lily. You have to down your first glass in one go," James laughed. Lily looked at his glass and was amazed that it was all gone.

"How did you do that so quickly?"

James smirked his trademark smirk at her, but Lily noticed that it didn't have the same liveliness it normally carried. "Like water," James said.

Lily shook her head and chuckled. "You alcoholic!"

"I haven't drunk a single glass since school started, Lily," James retorted.

Lily felt the liquid courage flow through her blood and she tipped the content of the glass into her mouth all at once. Synapses fired in her brain telling her to spit the drink out. Alcohol should not burn so much, her brain shouted. But she forced her throat to expand so the Firewhiskey would enter her stomach rather than stay in her mouth, potentially destroying every taste bud on her tongue.

James laughed loudly at the grimace on Lily's face. "Wow! I've never seen a girl do that before! Quite the feat if I say so myself, Evans."

Lily extended her glass towards James. "More."

"Whoa there, I don't know if we should drink so much, Lils," James protested.

Lily shook her head vehemently. "It's Friday. I want more!" she pouted.

James hesitated for a moment before pouring another glass for him and Lily. He raised his glass and clinked hers before downing it in one go. Lily's glass followed shortly after.

Lily felt lightheaded and judging from the burning in her cheeks, she was probably red. She forgot that the last time she got tipsy, it was because she had one glass of regular scotch. Two large glasses of Firewhiskey had to be equivalent to five or six glasses of scotch. Lily wasn't quite sure of the ratio and she couldn't bother to find out. Because now she was blitzed out of her mind and she wasn't sure quite how to handle it.

"More!" Lily screamed and jutted her glass out at James. "I want more!"

James giggled. He giggled, he never giggled. "No more! You're drunk, Lily."

Lily pouted. She jutted out her lower lip and blew into her cheeks, making her look like a drunk chipmunk with luscious red locks. "No! I want more! More, Jamesie! More! More! More!"

James clenched the bottle close to his chest and shook his head. "Lily, you're drunk and I'm tipsy. I haven't eaten a bite all day. No more Firewhiskey."

Lily cocked her head to the side and smiled a smile only a drunk could achieve. "I'll give you a kiss for it."

"Okay, maybe one more drink," James relented all too quickly. He poured himself and Lily another glass. James looked up at Lily with his beautiful hazel eyes. "Fess up, Evans."

Lily jumped forward and pressed her lips onto James's lips. He tasted like Firewhiskey, an altogether too addictive flavor. Who needs another drink when James tasted just like Firewhiskey and was six times more intoxicating?

"Lily, the drink," James murmured in between kisses.

"What about them?" Lily retorted before James crashed his lips back down onto Lily's. The two sat on the couch, kissing for what seemed like hours. It was like an orchestra the way Lily felt. Some bouts were soft, delicate, and soothing while others were vicious, passionate, and fast.

Lily broke off the kiss and looked up in James's eyes. "I love you, James," She spat out so quickly, it sounded like one word.

James shook his head. "It's just the alcohol talking, Lily. You'll forget this ever happened in the morning," James whispered. Lily tried to understand why James looked so sad, but couldn't. Didn't he love her? When did he stop?

"Is it because your parents are dead that you can't love me?" Lily asked, the tears threatening to fall again.

James shook his head again. "No. My parents are dead because they were sick and already getting on in age. I'm sad, yes, but I had already prepared myself when they were admitted to St. Mungo's. You don't love me, Lily."

"But I do," Lily protested, the tears beginning to fall.

James dabbed at them with the pad of his thumb. "How about we call it a night and if you still think you love me in the morning, tell me then."

Lily opened her mouth to protest, but James shushed her immediately. "Lily, I don't want this to be a drunken mistake. If you do love me, I want to hear it when you're sober."

"But you have waited for so long," Lily whispered.

James chuckled. "I've waited for roughly 1178 days, give or take ten. What's a few more hours?"

Lily nodded slowly and leaned into James's chest. "Can I sleep here for the night?" she whispered into his soaked shirt.

James silently took out his wand and casted a Warming Charm on his cloak before draping Lily and himself with it. "Who am I to say no?"

With that Lily fell into a blissful slumber. Alcohol did make one sleep like the dead. Come morning though, her head was panging and her limbs were rigid and sore from not having slept in a proper bed. _Water_ , Lily thought and she reached out for what seemed like a glass of tea on the cupboard.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she heard before the glass of unidentifiable liquid quite reach her parched lips. Lily nodded and set the glass back down without protesting or asking what it was. She looked up and saw that her bed for the night was James Potter.

"Why does my head hurt so much?" Lily whispered.

James chuckled. "You were drunk off your rockers, Lily. You said some pretty funny stuff as a result."

Suddenly, all the memories from last night rushed back into her head. Lily clasp her hand over her mouth to avoid screaming an obscene amount of profanity. She was thoroughly embarrassed with herself. More embarrassed than the time she danced with her large uncle Talbot at the wedding.

"Don't worry, Lily. It's okay, I can forget all about it," James chuckled, but it sounded sad and hollow.

Lily shook her head. "No. I meant it. I love you." She glanced up at James with her big, green eyes and said it again. "I love you, you prat."

James sighed. "Look if you're trying to pity me because my parents are dead, then save it." He sounded angry and upset, despite the girl of his dreams having told him that she was, in fact, in love with him.

"Well, I've waited roughly 132 days for you to tell me that you love me. What's a few more days to prove that I love you?" Lily playfully chided.

James quirked an eyebrow. "132? That's like…four months though," James muttered.

"Four months. That's about right," Lily said.

"When's the next Hogsmeade's trip?" James asked suddenly.

"7 days?" Lily answered.

"That's far too long," James whispered before descending and kissing Lily on the lips again.

"So what? Do you love me now?"

"I started that 1173 days ago, Lils."


	2. 2 Lily Evans-Potter

\- Lily Evans-Potter-

James glanced at the essay on the table in front of Lily Evans. She was fast asleep and judging from the faint snores coming from her pretty little mouth, she wasn't waking up anytime soon. James found himself a touch jealous of the redhead. She was asleep and he was not. Sure, there weren't N.E.W.T's or O.W.L's to deal with, but the sixth year workload was all quite overwhelming.

Every week, professors would spawn lengthy and difficult essays for their students to write. They probably assumed that writing an essay on the mating habit of a plant found in East Western China was as simple as conjuring a blanket to huddle underneath in front of the fire. It wasn't and it was starting to eat away at the Sixth Years. James was being crushed by his quidditch duties, his Marauder duties, and frankly, his duties to bring home good grades so his parents would rip him a new one.

It took everything James had to not look at Lily's essay. She was a good two feet in and James had finished a grand total of zero feet. If it were James of years past, he would have not thought twice about cheating off of Lily Evans, the smartest witch of her age, but this James was resolute in being as upstanding a student as possible.

But the combination of desperation and sleeplessness had beaten down any will James had built up against plagiarism. He just wanted to finish the essay and go to sleep. So he did the one thing he swore he wouldn't do.

James picked up the essay and read through it. He noted Lily's lovely cursive and use of the English language, a command that he would never dream of. His thumb grazed over the heading. Lily Evans it read. _Lily Evan Potter is more like it,_ James thought. He glanced at the references down that she had scribbled down on the side and he made a mental note of each volume before disappearing among the stack of books to find what he needed.

The smart thing to do was ask Lily about the essay, but waking Lily Evans from her nap was the last thing James wanted to do. She looked so peaceful sleeping.

* * *

It was seventh year now and the N.E.W.T's were looking scarier than ever. James cannot recall the last time he spent so many hours up studying. But at least, Lily sat across from him in the library or next to him on the couch by the fire. But not tonight, Lily had finished her essay early and turned in for a good night's sleep, leaving James's floundering by himself.

Naturally, he wanted to call it a day and have the nonchalant fuck-it attitude that he once possessed with such bravado, but now he wanted to impress his girlfriend more than anything. But being Quidditch captain and Head Boy was tiring. James knew Lily had chosen the same topic as him and maybe, she wouldn't be so mad if he used her essay as a reference for his own. It wasn't cheating if he just read it to grasp the concept better, right?

James smirked at his own rationalization. He stood up from his seat on the couch, but with much difficulty. It was two in the morning and he had been up for nearly a day and a half at this point. He stumbled to his bedroom, where Lily was sleeping. She had curled all the blankets to her side and was hugging James's pillow, leaving James's side without much to work with. He studied the way her red locks fell about the white pillows and blankets. How she snored softly when she slept. It was more enticing and interesting essay that Slughorn could give.

James leaned over and kissed Lily on the cheek before sneaking her bag out to the Common Room. He snickered when he saw the disorderly state Lily's bag was in. Only her closest friends and James knew about Lily's propensity for disorganization. She looked put together, but the dastardly state of her room told a completely different story. James had to be quite vigilant about her mucking up the cleanliness of his room.

James skimmed the contents of her potion essay and found that she had chosen a completely different potion to write about. He knew he should have taken her offer to work together instead of working with Remus. Remus was a good student, but was abysmal at studying together. His project grades were quite a clear indication of Remus's lone wolf tendencies when it came to his homework assignments.

Frustrated, James walked over to Lily's room so he could peruse the notes he knew she scribbled into her textbook. But James knew that it would be like walking into a war zone that only Lily Evans could traverse. Stepping into the threshold that was Lily's room, James was confronted with the challenge of finding where she kept her textbooks. James had only been in here a handful of times since they started dating. She spent most of her nights in his room and she only stepped into her room to change and get her textbooks.

James tiptoed about the reckless abandon on her floor, careful not to impale his foot on an awry metal comb or even a thumbtack she probably had lying all over the floor. Her textbook was on her bed, which was buried underneath a mountain of clothes and parchment. James grabbed the textbook quickly, careful not to disturb the careless stack of papers piled on her bed. He didn't want to be buried underneath an avalanche of Lily's old schoolwork.

The textbook itself was filled with post-it notes, all color-coded, but James could not decipher what each color meant. James flipped through the book to where his potion would be listed, but his eye caught something as the pages flew by. He stopped and backtracked to page eighty-one. In the corner of the page, there was a little scribble. _Lily Evans-Potter_.

Page eighty-one covered the various regional variations on the sleepless draught and the effects they had. This was covered during the second week before the two had even started dating. James felt the familiar sting of tears in his sleep-deprived eyes and quickly dabbed at them with the back of his hand. James brushed his thumb over the lettering, all thought of finding her notes on his potion gone from his mind.

"Lily Evans-Potter," James muttered to himself. The only thing that could hear him say her name was the fire surging in the fireplace and the parchments that laid precariously about him. The name rolled off his tongue so eloquently and beautifully, that James thought it would be a crime against nature if that weren't her name.

"Lily Evans-Potter," James whispered again.

"Yes, James?" a sleepy whisper came from James's doorway. James spun around to see Lily brushing the sleep out of her eyes with the sleeve of his sweater. She smiled sleepily at him as she slumped down beside him. She rested her messy head on his shoulder and yawned softly, her eyes still closed.

"Lily Evans-Potter, huh?" James said again. Lily nodded slowly in response to her name.

"Still calling for me, James?" Lily whispered.

James turned and kissed the part in her hair. He always thought that she would smell like lavender all the time, but she didn't. Most days, her hair didn't smell nearly as nice, rather it smelled like cloth and him. He thought Lily was the epitome of perfection, a goddess to be worshipped. But she wasn't. Lily wasn't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. She was quick to temper, unorganized, and easy to trick. But she was everything that James wanted. Strangely enough, it was only when he stopped worshipping her, that he got her.

"Already decided to marry me, huh? I don't get a say in the matter?" James chuckled softly, his lips still touching Lily's dark red hair.

"I thought you already decided that two years ago, Mr. Potter."

"Should have given me a chance to buy a ring first, Lils," James replied.

Lily nodded her head sheepishly before getting up. She looked down at James with a soft smile on her face. She extended her hand out. "Ready to go to bed, Mr. Potter?"

James glanced down at his essay and back up at his girlfriend. "Whenever you are, Mrs. Potter." He took Lily's hand and lifted himself off the ground before walking to bed with Lily, hand-in-hand.


End file.
